Every step of the way
by UnluckyAmulet
Summary: A collection of moments at the Yule Ball, from rose petals, dresses and shoes to tears, tantrums and chocolate-covered pork chops. 50 sentences.


Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Just an idea I felt like trying. There are way too many possible pairings in this story to list. I sort of took a few liberties with the adults in order to include them, but whatever.

Enjoy!

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1. Shoes

Hermione found it difficult to walk in high-heels, but even she couldn't resist the way they matched her dress. Or the way other girls looked her over and seemed so surprised that a bookworm could be pretty.

2. Steps

Neville may have stepped on her feet more then a few times, but Ginny just couldn't tell him, not when Neville seemed to be having the time of his life. If only she had been, too.

3. Intelligence

Roger Davies was usually fairly articulate, but when it came to trying to talk to Fleur Delacour, he could feel his I.Q slowly dropping as the light sparkled on her lipgloss.

4. Pain

Everyone had seen that Snape was in a foul mood at the Yule Ball- but only because he was trying to vent the pain of seeing everyone else dancing, the glances and blushes like tiny sparrows before his eyes.

5. Envy

Draco Malfoy wasn't concerned about finding a partner, since he knew he would have plenty of girls asking him, although he did enjoy saying, "Yes," to Pansy's request in a very loud voice as Ron Weasley passed- watching the Weasley's face had been very amusing.

6. Memories

The ghosts had kept away from the Great Hall on the night of the Ball (who wanted to accidentally dance through one?) although the Grey Lady couldn't help but notice the Bloody Baron watching her as they looked on at the dancing couples.

7. Foreign

Hermione would never admit it. Never in a million years. The very idea of saying it made her laugh at how shallow it made her sound...

...But she did find Krum's accent sexy.

8. Lead

Harry assumed Parvati was just a better dancer then him, which is why he let her steer. But Parvati secretly liked to be the one in charge of things, for a change.

9. Spontaneous

Seamus Finnigan wasted no time in getting a date. And while walking up to her and saying, "Hey, Lavender, wanna go to the Ball with me?" wasn't exactly the most romantic thing in the world, Lavender found herself blushing all the same.

10. Glamourous

Even though it seemed silly, the people in their portraits couldn't help but run from frame to frame, trying to catch a glimpse of the students as they milled toward the Great Hall.

11. Silk

Cedric didn't know it at the time, but as he died, one of the happy memories that came flooding back to him would be him and Cho on the dance floor, with her head nestled against his shoulder.

12. Gold

Karkaroff didn't really care much for the Ball- all he cared about was Krum winning the Triwizard tournament and the evermore clear black mark on his arm. But he couldn't help but watch Fleur Delacour just for a little too long as she and her partner glided past him.

13. Silver

Luna Lovegood hadn't really expected to be asked to the Ball, but she couldn't help but feel a little bit elated when her partner's face lit up with a smile as she descended the stairs, hair taking on an ethereal, silvery glimmer.

14. Bronze

Padma hadn't much appreciated being treated like an On-arm accessory to Ron Weasley, when all he could do was stew in jealousy. But when she looked over at the arguing, screeching couples on the staircase, she thought perhaps she had gotten off easy.

15. Blush

Ginny had not been the first person Neville asked to the Ball. Hannah Abbott had looked strangely tearful when she told him she was going with someone else, but looking at her now, she did look very nice in a cherry-coloured dress and her blonde hair down. She was still pink-faced, but somehow, she looked even nicer that way.

16. Decorations

It had been exhausting, bewitching the Great Hall to look the way it did. But when the Hogwarts Staff saw the expressions on the student's faces as they drank it all in, it made it all seem worth it.

17. Glance

Sirius had never told Harry this, but he had managed to appear, just for a moment, in one of the fires lit in the Hall. It was very good timing, because he just managed to catch Harry and Parvati dancing. He had never felt happier to be appointed godfather.

18. Deception

Professor Sinistra found herself feeling strangely empty when the Mad-Eye Moody she had danced with turned out to be an impostor. It had surprised her, at the time, to found out how much she had enjoyed it.

19. Thorns

Because the Great Hall wasn't exactly exclusive, quite a few couples chose to venture outside into the Hogwarts grounds. The next morning, quite a few people were trying to dislodge rose petals from their robes and hide suspicious scratches on their arms.

20. Modesty

Almost everyone commented on each other's outfits that night, and Hermione was no exception. Ron still insisted that her dress was too low-cut, but Harry personally thought Ron was just sour. Not that he was going to say that out loud, of course.

21. Wish

Professor McGonagall had always respected and admired Albus Dumbledore. But she wasn't going to pretend it was respect or admiration that made feel so happy to have the first dance with him.

22. Repetition

Snape barely recognised most of the students that night, and he found that he had to look away from girls with red hair or green eyes, because it made him think of dances that never were.

23. Tinsel

Fleur wasn't really as disdainful of Hogwarts as she pretended to be, she just felt oddly homesick. Although that didn't stop her from loudly pointing out the decorations she deemed to be tacky, even if she secretly liked them.

24. Balloons

Alicia Spinnet had found herself a little depressed at her not-so-graceful dancing, but she couldn't stop herself giggling a little too hard when George Weasley inhaled from the balloons, trying to get her to laugh.

25. Distracted

Harry was quite right in thinking Hermione did not have her mind on S.P.E.W when she was eating with Krum- she barely even noticed what she was eating, until she ended up with chocolate-covered pork chops.

26. Dance

Luna hadn't been entirely truthful when she said she didn't like to dance- she just knew her dancing was a little too unusual for everyone else.

27. Secret

Parvati enjoyed her time in the Yule Ball a lot more with the Beauxbaton boy, and told everyone she was meeting up with him at Hogsmeade...but she opted not to tell anyone about the love-bite.

28. Fairydust

Not many people paid them much attention, but Luna smiled as she spotted the fairies flittering around the Great Hall, trailing glitter wherever they went...

29. Tears

Plenty of tears were shed the night of the Yule Ball- tears of frustration, happiness, jealousy, anger, sadness, embarrassment...and that was just from the boys.

30. Blister

Not all the girls at Hogwarts could break in their shoes quickly in order to be able to wear them for the night. Several girls had to resort to beating them against the wall to soften them, and even then they still had blisters to bandage.

31. Heartbeat

Cho had been very nervous preparing for the big night, but now, dancing on the dance floor with Cedric, it was like only they existed, listening to their heartbeats.

32. Correspondent

Mrs. Weasley didn't like to pry (well, she _did_, but in person rather then via letters) but she couldn't resist asking her children how the Ball had gone. Fred, George and Ron had all been disappointingly vague, but when she asked Ginny, she had provided Mrs. Weasley with pages and pages. Mrs. Weasley knew she could rely on a girl, and smiled smugly to herself.

33. Passion

When Angelina agreed to go with Fred Weasley to the ball, she hadn't really _liked_ him that much. But whilst they were dancing, Angelina was surprised to hear her heart pounding in her ears as Fred's hands slipped slowly down her waist...until Professor McGonagall had rushed over and told them off.

34. Marble

Even though Hagrid was devastated after the 'incident' with Madame Maxime, he couldn't help wondering vaguely when that reindeer statue had appeared in the grounds.

35. Raven

Ginny didn't try to ignore the faint hope in her chest that Harry might notice her, in her new dress. She had been quietly nursing it for some time, but she felt no surprise, just disappointment, when he spent the whole evening staring at the blue-black waterfall of Cho Chang's hair.

36. Attention

Moaning Myrtle, deep down, didn't _really_ feel upset about the Ball. She knew that if she was alive, she'd be much older then any of the students, it wouldn't be her Ball anyway. But she turned up her wailing and shrieking a few notches on the night anyway. Just because.

37. Movement

Lavender was actually pleasantly surprised to find that Seamus was actually quite good at dancing. But she felt nothing short of shock when she saw that Dean Thomas was a _brilliant_ one.

38. Disguise

Tonks had been more then a little envious when Hermione and Ginny had told her all about the Yule ball, some time shortly after they first met. She couldn't help thinking, wistfully, that had she known about it, she could have probably disguised herself as a high-school girl and just had one dance.

39. Emerald

Hermione had to agree with Mrs. Weasley. Although they hadn't been on good terms recently with that Skeeter woman prowling around, Hermione couldn't help a small smile flit across her face as she watched Harry and Cho. His eyes looked all the more astonishing in green.

40. Sapphire

Cho, who had been admiring her dress, had heard a lot of rustling coming from the Ravenclaw common room. Checking it out, she saw Luna trying to zip up her dress from the back, her hair tangled up in the zipper. While Cho, who felt charitable that night, helped her, she was startled at how well Luna's dress seemed to match everything.

41. Ruby

Even if she wasn't his first choice, Neville had enjoyed his night at the Ball very much so. He found it odd how he couldn't seem to stop staring at the exact shade of red that was Ginny's hair.

42. Cold

Pansy had been so smug when she told her friends she had managed to bag Draco Malfoy as a partner before anyone else had the chance. But now, as he flirted with other girls with that little smirk on his face, she suddenly didn't feel so pleased with herself.

43. Doubles

Maybe it was because they were on the same Quidditch team, or maybe Fred and George had grown bored of behaving themselves for the night, but Angelina and Alicia could have sworn they kept switching places on them. But the infuriating thing was, it was impossible to be sure.

44. Garden

Professor Sprout had actually been looking forward to an excuse to get out of the greenhouses for a while, but it still came as a shock to her to look down at her hands and not see layers of dirt beneath her fingernails.

45. Tranquillity

Unsurprisingly, Peeves' absence during the Ball was one of those things that made it more magical. Nobody knew how he'd managed to keep the embodiment of chaos away during such an important night, but more people just shrugged and attributed it to the awesomeness that was Dumbledore.

46. Warm

Even though he would deny a few years later, when Harry had watched Cho and Cedric, he kept imagining would it would be like to be the one feeling her warm breath on his neck, or to put his hand on her waist.

47. Possibilities

Bill Weasley had been quite amused when Mrs. Weasley told him all about the Ball, combining all the information she had managed to glean from her children. Bill privately thought he would have quite enjoyed going stag, but he had to fight not to smirk when he thought that Charlie would have probably invited the Hungarian Horntail.

48. Youth

Sirius had idly wondered, had the Triwizard Tournament occurred in his schooldays, who Lily Evans would have agreed to go with, depending on how old they were. But he had quickly lost interest in that when he fondly remembered all the possible girls _he_ could have taken.

49. Liberty

The House Elves, as it turned out, did have a lot of work to do that night as they feverishly cooked food that was specially ordered from the people above them. Although Dobby, who couldn't stop glancing at the lavish decorations shimmering in the kitchens as they worked, didn't mind the extra work in the least.

50. Dawn

And the day after the Ball, nobody could believe that they were expecting to carry on with life as normal. Although, in some cases, normal came as a bit of a relief.


End file.
